


Spontaneous

by LorelyLantana



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: But first, F/M, Ganon is gone now what, Post Speedrun, Sleep, Zelda has questions, what actually happens after a speedrun, zelink
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-01
Updated: 2021-01-20
Packaged: 2021-03-11 09:49:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,984
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28469301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LorelyLantana/pseuds/LorelyLantana
Summary: Zelda wasn't entirely sure what she was expecting when Link woke from his one hundred year slumber, but she didn't think he would charge the castle without stopping for so much as a pair of pants.
Relationships: Link/Zelda (Legend of Zelda)
Comments: 31
Kudos: 176





	1. Step One

**Author's Note:**

> Last fic post in 2020! It's been a wild ride y'all but here's one last beginning before the year ends.

What-

What in Hylia’s name did she just watch?

During her captivity, Zelda imagined several different scenarios for Link’s clash with Ganon. It gave her hope to think about standing before him as he smiled at her once again. Maybe, if she was lucky, he would take her into his arms, reunited at last before riding away to rebuild Hyrule. But never, in her wildest dreams, did she think of this situation.

There was the Hero of Hyrule, walking toward her in all his barely dressed glory, giving her the most roguish smile she’d ever seen on his face. A horse walked up to him, unsaddled and almost identical to Epona, his steed from a century ago. The mare nuzzled his shoulder, and he grimaced, looking down at the side of his ribs where one of the Blights must have nicked him. He moved to cover the gash with his own hand but she smacked it away.

“Now you stop that!” she scolded. His hands were covered in all manner of grease and dust and no doubt several other kinds of dirt you kept away from open wounds at all costs. She turned him around and batted his arm away so she could take a closer look at the cut, her hand coming to rest on his stomach as she did so, an inch above the waistband of his shorts. She felt more than heard him suck in a breath.

“What’s wrong?” she asked. Did he have internal damage? His face was flushed and he shook his head. Did he have a fever? That’s a bad sign. She turned her attention back to his bleeding side to look for signs of infection. It didn’t look too bad, actually. Still, without Mipha’s Grace, may her soul rest, Zelda wasn’t comfortable leaving it alone. She grabbed his arm, which was noticeably thinner than it was 100 years ago, and dragged him towards the Sacred Ground Ruins, where the water thankfully still ran clear. It was a short trip, but she was still shaking with exertion but the time they reached what was left of the stone platform. The Epona horse followed without instruction, which implied some measure of domestication, but without any tack to speak of she couldn’t be sure.

She sat him down and began tearing at some of the cleaner sections of her dress. Link scratched the back of his neck.

“You don’t need to-”

“If I never wear this dress again it will be too soon,” she huffed, sitting on the lip of the fountain. She dipped the cloth into the water and wrung it out. She turned back to him and patted her lap, “Come here.”

“Are you sure?” he asked. She wasn’t amused by his hesitation, especially when the growing flush on his cheeks could be indicative of a fever.

“I wouldn’t ask if I wasn’t sure. Now lay down so we can see to that cut.”

He waited a beat longer, as if waiting for her to withdraw her offer. Then he settled in her lap, letting out a soft sigh as he relaxed. He wasn’t shivering, so perhaps it wasn’t as severe as she feared. She pressed her hand onto his cheek, which was warm, but not alarmingly so. Perhaps it was a reaction to the warm summer’s day rather than illness. She hoped so. In a perfect world she would have a Hyrule herb poultice to spread around the cut, but for now they’d have to settle with a simple bandage.

“Tell me,” she prompted as she began rubbing the blood away, hoping to distract him from the pain a little, “What happened after you woke up?”

“Not much,” he admitted, “I woke up, followed the old man’s instructions, and then he gave me a paraglider, and then I flew to the castle. I made my way to the top, and then I was here.”

She paused, “That’s it?”

“That’s it.”

She needed a moment to process the implications. “Exactly how much time has passed since you woke up?” Her perception of time was a bit skewed when she was imprisoned. For all she knew, he’d been running around Hyrule for months, but that didn’t explain his conspicuous lack of pants. He considered a moment before answering.

“A day. I think?” he looked sheepish when he clarified, “I may have spent more time necessary exploring the plateau.”

Zelda wasn’t about to complain about his response time when he single handedly beat down the apocalypse mere hours after his return to the living, so she focused on their next steps. She had him sit up while she tore off more of her dress to wrap around his torso. 

Her first thought was that he needed to get dressed, but he made it this far without clothes, so he’d probably survive a bit longer. Infection or no, she wanted to get the cut taken care of as soon as possible, and without any degree of medical equipment, their best option was a hot spring. There was one inside the castle, but with monsters still lurking with the walls it was hardly an ideal, despite its proximity.

Zelda looked to the sky, it was still late morning, so there was enough time to ride to lakes at the foot of Death Mountain and have an hour or two to soak before the sun went down. 

“Alright,” she said, standing to stretch. He followed her to where the Epona horse stood. “A hot spring would do us both a world of good, and the closest one is to the northeast. Is that agreeable to you?”

He shrugged, content to follow Zelda’s plan. He helped her mount before settling behind her, and though she couldn’t be certain, she would have sworn she could see a solitary spirit wave them goodbye as they passed. It looked like her father.

The guardians were still walking about, lit up a bright orange. Even if her mind knew they posed no threat now that they were freed from Ganon’s control, she couldn’t help how her heart sped at the sight of them. Link must have noticed, because he insisted they urge the Epona horse into a canter, despite Zelda’s reservations. It seemed that his skills as a rider weren’t lost to time, which was a relief. The roads were empty, even when they left Hyrule field, but Zelda was too exhausted mentally to ponder it for too long. They passed Foothill Stable as the sun began to set.

As they came up on the turquoise water, she swung a leg over the Epona horse’s neck, a move made possible by her freshly shortened dress, and slid down. Zelda untied the bandage around his waist and dipped her feet in the water. She put her hair in a ponytail while he sank into the spring with a moan. Link had offered his hair tie, but Zelda wasn’t going to take an accessory from a man wearing only his undershorts, so she declined, opting instead to tie it with a spare scrap of dress. She absentmindedly brushed his hair back before taking stock of the meager inventory.

It wasn’t as sparse as she’d assumed. There were a few odds and ends, bundles of wood and various herbs and mushrooms. She also came across a few gems and a handful of rupees, which she set aside. She tried to make the best camp she could, listening to Link paddle around idly. She built a fire and arranged the mushrooms and found a stick to skewer them with. Once she returned she found Link by the fire, slicing a trout into chunks to cook. If he’s quick enough to catch a fish with his bare hands, then his skill hadn’t depleted, only his strength.

Yet still strong enough to best Calamity.

They ate in relative silence, until Zelda finally scrapped up enough courage to ask the devastating question she already knew the answer to.

“What do you remember?” she asked. He shifted next to her, his shoulder brushing against hers.

“Nothing.”

She nodded, taking a bite before speaking again. She didn’t have the strength to face reality as a whole. Not yet, so instead she addressed the small pieces she could handle.

“Can I have these?” she asked, pointing to the gems. He nodded, tossing his empty skewer into the fire before going to sit in the water again. Zelda took the gems and walked back to the stable.

She made it as far as the sign marking Death Mountain's ascent before she had to stop and rest, huffing as she sat down on the warm rock. She tried to adjust her sandals, only to have them come apart in her hands, so she just tossed them aside. If Link could fight six different abominations in quick succession barefoot, surely she could walk to a stable. 

But as she stood up on shaking legs she felt a gentle bump against her back. The Epona horse had come for her, and Zelda was not proud enough to refuse her assistance, using the rock as an impromptu mounting block. 

“You’re a brave one, girlie,” Ozunda said, walking up to the counter, “walking about after the day went red like that. Everyone’s been buckled down since.”

“The disturbance has since passed,” she replied. She didn’t tell them the Calamity was no more because she didn’t think she could handle a celebration surrounded by her kingdom’s ruin. Instead she walked to the merchant sitting on the floor, placing the gems on his makeshift table.

“How much can you give me for these?”

He ended up giving her 210 rupees for the stones, which she in turn used to purchase a set of Hylian trousers and a sturdy tunic. He even threw in a hair comb he had in stock, though she suspected he pitied Zelda for her tragically bare feet and disheveled hair.

Zelda walked out of the tent to where the Epona horse waited patiently. She looked around for a rock to help mount, but a stable hand came to help her up. Zelda focused on thanking the young woman instead of how frail she must look to warrant unrequested assistance.

“You want to register that horse, miss?” Ozunda called as she turned to go, “It gets you a stable issue saddle and bridle, just twenty rupees.”

“It’s not my horse,” Zelda answered, “We’ll come by later.”

She returned to their campsite with the bundle of clothes to find Link already stretched out, fast asleep. She tucked the clothes under his head and set the boots to the side and placed her fingertips across his chest lightly, only removing them when he felt him take a breath. She ran the comb carefully through her hair. Letting it down from it’s braid for the first time in one hundred years. Then she ducked behind the rocks to give her some measure of privacy while she stripped off the dress. After several careful tears Zelda was able to separate that dreadful outer layer from the rest of the gown. She set them aside while she finally stepped into the water, letting it melt away some of the physical strains weighing on her.

And then Zelda was alone with her thoughts, without an activity to occupy her thoughts. Zelda was left to grieve.

She hated herself for it, but she felt a flood of relief overpower that grief. Granted, she’d had a century to come to terms with devastation of Calamity, but it felt wrong to rest when the Champions, her dearest friends, were tethered to this world, not allowed to pass on. They would have to visit each Divine Beasts and release them of their duty. 

And then what?

Things didn’t go at all as she’d expected them to. She wasn’t so foolish as to believe everything would go according to plan, but she never would have thought Link would charge the castle before he had a chance to remember himself. A trip to Kakariko was in order. Impa would be able to tell them where to go from there. Perhaps Purah lived still, and she could share some of her findings with Zelda.

For the time being, she had to help Link get back to what he was. She knew it wasn’t fair to put her beloved Champion through all this to begin with, much less without so much as a memory to guide him. He might not want to travel with Zelda, perhaps only freeing her out of a lingering sense of duty before exploring the wilds at his leisure. She owed that to him, if that was his desire. She could make her own way once they reached Kakariko. At the very least, she was obligated to point him in the right direction.

Before all else, though, she must rest. Her eyes were closing of her own accord, and her mind grew hazy.

She pulled herself out of the water, using the torn cloth to wipe herself down before slipping back into the revised dress, now coming to a stop right above her knees. Zelda sat down beside the long dead fire. She leaned against the warm red stone, Link’s sleeping figure the last thing she saw before falling asleep.


	2. One Day at a Time

Zelda was woken up by a faint rustle. She opened her eyes to a small creature with an ethereal blue glow about it. It was currently digging through their pack. A quick glance to the side confirmed Link was still asleep, so she was alone with the creature. She remained still as she watched the blupee straighten, some of the herbs they’d gathered clasped in its paws.

“That doesn’t belong to you,” she said, still lying on her side. She expected the creature to flee, hopefully without any of their supplies. Instead, it merely turned to look at her. It stared at her for a moment before padding over to where she was still leaning on her side. The blupee pawed at her hand where it rested on her knee, opening her fingers and pushing something into her palm before running off with the herbs. Zelda brought her hand to her face to look at what she was holding. A red rupee twinkled back at her.

Alright then.

Zelda figured she should tuck the money away, but she was still too drowsy to really care. She settled back asleep, the money still loosely grasped in her palm.

* * *

Her day started with the sweet scent of baked apples. Zelda was a bit disoriented, laying down with her head resting on the pile of clothes instead of leaning against the rock she fell asleep on. The outer layer of her dress must have dried while she slept and was now draped over her as a makeshift blanket. Link was already up and bustling around their meager campsite. 

“Good morning,” he said, which she thought was generous, considering the sun was directly overhead. He handed her an apple. She bit into it, more out of habit than out of hunger. Her stomach must have shrunk in the past century, because she was stuffed by the time she finished. She watched as the Epona horse nuzzled at Link’s hair, and he fed her an apple as well.

“You should register the horse at a stable,” she said. He looked at her.

“What happens when we register?” he asked.

“They’ll give us a saddle and bridle, for one thing,” she said, and held up the red gem in her hand, “It’s a good bargain for just twenty rupees, and you’ll be able to give her a name.”

Link tilted his head the way he always did when considering his options. “What do you think we should name her?”

Zelda shrugged, “You tamed the horse, it’s your call.”

“No I didn’t.”

That made her pause, “What do you mean you didn’t tame the horse? Where did you find her?”

He shrugged, “She found me, really. When you sent me to Hyrule Field to fight the boar she just came running.”

That didn’t make any sense, but there’s no point in pondering a question with no answer, so she moved on. She handed him the pile of clothes.

“Here, put these on and we can be on our way.”

He stared at her, making no move to take the bundle. She held them out further, “Go on then. I’ll smother the fire.”

Instead, Link pushed the clothes back to her chest.

“You should wear them. You bought them,”

She pushed it back, or she tried to. He wouldn’t budge.

“It was bought with money made selling your gems, they’re by all accounts yours.”

“I gave those to you, and if that doesn’t suffice then I’m giving these to you.”

It shouldn’t be this hard to get a grown man to wear clothes. 

“You need to wear clothes when we see Impa,” she insisted, pushing the clothes back towards his chest.

“Why?” he held them out to her again, brow furrowed.

“ _ Because it’d be rude not to _ !” she hissed, patience wearing a bit thin. He conceded at her frustration, and reluctantly pulled on the pants while she tidied up their camp, folding the spare cloth and tucking it away in Link’s pack and throwing any scraps of wood into the water. When she straightened out the tower further up the mountain caught her eye, “Was that tower blue last night?”

“No,” the word was muffled by the tunic as he pulled it on. His head popped out and he continued, “I registered the tower this morning. Figured it couldn’t hurt. Besides, you were out like a light.”

He grinned at her, bright and cheeky. She felt a small smile of her own grow at his tease, going so far as to swat him on the arm as she passed. Zelda pulled herself up onto the Epona horse’s back, having absolutely no desire to walk the mountain road barefoot. Link himself opted to walk alongside them until they reached the stable. He then walked up to Ozunda to sort out the mare’s registration. While they tacked and put the horse into the system, Zelda read the book titled Rumor Mill. She had hoped, rather optimistically, that it was something of a news publication. It seemed a bit questionable, but after what she had to live through Zelda was hesitant to discount any folktales as outright false. Then it was time to go, and she was once again helped into the saddle before heading South.

* * *

Link named the horse Epona.

The trip to Kakariko was uneventful. Zelda tried to walk as much as she could, but it wasn’t much. She rode Epona as they walked the roads dismounting whenever they crossed terrain that might be more accommodating to her bare feet, such as the grassy plains or the sands bordering some of the rivers. Walking helped bind Zelda to the era at hand, clearing her mind as she focused on the blades of grass between her toes instead of the echoes of Calamity. Sadly, she tired quicker than she would have liked, her dragging feet causing her to stumble a couple of times before Link insisted she ride once more. She let her feet dangle, refusing to put them in the stirrups. She’d managed to prevent any chafing on her thighs by spreading the remains of her skirt over the leather seat, but without pants there was no mitigating any pinching from the stirrup straps. Epona followed Link without complaint or diversion, so there wasn’t a real need for Zelda to interfere much anyway.

Link on the other hand, exhibited none of the weakness she did as he darted this way and that, picking up whatever caught his eye and slipping into a pack that really should be full by now. Sometimes he would run ahead to slay any monsters in their path. Zelda contemplated asking him to ride with her, but decided against it when she saw how often he ran off.

“Keep the entrails,” Zelda had said the first time he’d done slain a pair of bokoblins and made to walk away from the remains empty handed, “They’ll be useful later.”

He didn’t question her, but he started collecting everything he saw after that.

Without the need to focus on guiding the Epona Zelda found herself daydreaming more than once. Daydreaming was not the right word, it implied whimsical, pleasant musings. A far cry from the guilt ridden nightmares plaguing her thoughts. Link noticed her discomfort, because he seemed just as aware of her as he was 100 years ago, but didn’t seem to know what to say until he asked, “What’s one thing you like about this time?”

Zelda snapped out of her daze, looking his way but not quite focusing on his face, “What?”

“What’s something that you think changed for the better?” he raised his hand but seemed to think better of it, instead brushing his fingers against her calf. The touch helped tie her to the moment, and his features came into sharp focus. His brow was furrowed, but she wouldn’t say he was glaring.

She didn’t answer for a moment. It seemed wrong to look for a bright side to all this destruction, but there was a determination in his eyes that pushed her to face the question. She looked around. They were walking along a river, and a gentle breeze caressed her skin. 

“It’s peaceful,” she admitted, “There’s hardly anyone on the roads, but that means you can hear the birds sing.”

“What else?” he encouraged.

“The horizon is visible in all directions,” she said, “I feel like I can go anywhere.”

“Where do you want to go?” he asked, loosely holding onto her ankle.

“Lurelin,” she replied, “I wasn’t allowed to go because it was too remote and would take time I should have been spending at the Spring of Courage. I hear the water glimmers in the sun and the sand is white as snow there.”

“We can go there now if you like,” Link said, squeezing her leg before letting it go. Zelda wished he didn’t, but couldn’t bring herself to voice her loss. She smiled at the thought of dropping everything and pursuing her own desires, of forgoing every single obligation until she felt well enough to face them.

“We should see Impa first. She’s waited for us long enough.” That answer didn’t seem to satisfy him, so she tried for a joke, “At the very least she should have my old clothes, and my boots, Hylia save me.”

The smile felt fake on her face, but the opportunity to assuage Link’s baseless guilt over his clothes was enough to lead them on. They reached Kakariko well after dark, but Zelda had them approach the central house anyway. The guards gaped up at her, reverent even though they had never seen her before. Perhaps they recognized her mother’s jewelry, which she couldn’t bear to part with even as she tore her pious gown to shreds. A squeak came from somewhere up above, and Zelda looked up to find a flash of silver hair retreat into the house.

“Princess Zelda?” the guard to the left asked.

“Yes,” she answered, “Is Impa well?”

The guard nodded, “She’d be a lot better if she saw your face, Princess. Please, go right up.”

She slid down from Epona’s back and walked to the stairs. Link came by to take her arm, which she was grateful for, even if the part of her that brawled with Ganon for a century raged at her own helplessness. They stood in front of the doors in what seemed like seconds, though they had taken their time. Link made no move to go through, giving her the time she needed to brace herself. 

Zelda took a shaking breath before pushing against the ancient wood and stepping into the room beyond.


End file.
